My great conference MISadventure
Last Wednesday headed off to the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) in Montreal Canada. The conference was fabulous. The trip???? Well, I had a few challenges to deal with.
The trip down on the train was great - first class - breakfast served to me.
I got to Montreal and went to buy my bus tickets so I could get to where I was staying that night. Montreal is on an island. There are cities south of the island (The South Shore which is where I was staying). I had researched on the internet how to get from the bus depot to my destination. They have all new buses. (I assumed they were smart enough to get accessible ones) Yes ASS U ME Never smart to do
I needed bus tickets so I thought it would be easier to do while the agents were open rather than wait until night when they were closed. -- Yes I had a plan. My part worked well. Their part – not so much
They sold me a card with 6 tickets - just what I needed for the back and forth to the conference. I like to check things out because of the wheelchair. I don’t need any surprises or wasting battery power, I couldn't figure out how to get from the street level to the level where the buses were so I had to ask security and he explained they had no elevators and someone would have to escort me around the back of the building. This is an old train station that they converted to a bus depot. - actually a pretty smart move on someone’s part. But this is Quebec and they tend to be very backwards thinking when it comes to most things.
So I had my tickets I knew what I needed to do at night to get to where I was staying. All's good.
I got to the conference and started off with a full day workshop. It was wonderful. I wrote some stuff down and will post it later. (it will also be on www.freeminds.org
in the evening I attended a workshop for professionals about the needs of people coming out of cults. We are not alone in our responses to living in a cult..
So at the end of the day I roll on over to the bus depot to catch the bus and then get security to take me down to the bus level and we wait for the bus. The bus arrives and there is no ramp for me to get on the bus. I tell the driver no problem I will take the next one. No he says. None of their buses are accessible. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! They bought a whole fleet of new buses and not one is accessible.
So ok I will call the adapted bus services to send me the special bus. Get on the phone "Sorry Madame you are not on our list. I can't send you a bus" OK so you have no accessible regular bus service. People have to be registered 6 months ahead of time (who knows 6 months in advance) and now I am stranded and you can't/won't help me. Their website clearly says they will provide transit to people in wheelchairs from another city. I have all my cards showing I have access to adapted transport where I live so I do have proof. So we argue back and forth and he finally says "Let me talk to my supervisor"
He comes back and says the best he can do is send me a taxi that will take wheelchairs but I will have to pay. But he can send the bus in the morning the only time they can send the bus in the morning is 5 am. The conference doesn’t start until 9 am. But that is better than nothing so I agree. So 37$ later I am finally where I need to be. I have been up since 4 am and it is now 11 PM and I am 37$ poorer. My food money is disappearing.
Next morning I am out waiting and a taxi pulls up. OK sometimes they send taxis in Ottawa back in Ottawa. Why waste the big bus for just one person. But you still just pay the bus ticket back home. The driver gets in and switches on the meter. Tells me I am not on the adapted transport list so I will have to pay. $$$33 later. I am NOT impressed.
At that rate I could have gone on the train between Ottawa and Montreal every day and slept in my own bed.
OH and the first taxi driver told me that the card I bought is useless, Adapted transit doesn't use it even if they had agreed to take me. I would have to use paper tickets.
So I go back and to the transit depot and ask for my money back. "Madame did you use any of the tickets?" Uhhh NO!. As you can see I am in a wheelchair and you don't have one single bus that I can get on to go to the south shore" I want my money back. She goes in the back to call her supervisor and comes back, "Sorry Madame you will have to go to the office and get your refund from them. She also gives me this list of about 12 buses that are supposed to go to the south shore and she says these are the accessible buses. So she has some information which is wrong, The office seems clued out. So she gives me a map to go from where I am at the depot to where I need to get my refund. It isn’t far so off I go. Get to the address and there is nothing there. But there is a police station right beside the empty lot address. So I go in and he says as long as he has been there he never saw anything at that address. So I wander around and there is a name on the paper and I find a building with the same name. I go in and they never heard of that office. Grrrrr
Desk clerk was kind enough to let me use the phone and I call them and go through the whole routine a couple of more times. I still have no idea where the office is but he will fax a paper back to the bus depot and I can get my $17 back for the bus pass as long as it shows I haven't used any of the tickets. By this time I am certain that I am dealing with a bunch of idiots and am so glad I don't live there anymore.
I want my taxi money back but think I will wait until I am home to start that campaign.
So I wasted the whole morning fighting for a some kind of service for my $100 and missed out on a few sessions that I really wanted to attend
Now, what do I do. No bus. Adapted transit tells me I should have registered 6 months ago and there is nothing they will do. I didn’t even know if I would be attending the conference 6 months ago.
Now I have to find some other way to do this.
So I asked some of the people at the reception desk of the conference if it would be possible for them to lock my chair up for the night and I would see if the person where I was staying will pick me up after her work and drop me off in the morning. I felt bad asking her to go even more out of her way for me but there wasn't much choice. She was more than willing to help so we had a plan and it worked well.
The son of one of the organizers (Mike Kropveld) would go with me and we would wait outside for her to come and he would ride the chair back inside and lock it in their storage room and he would be waiting for me in the morning.
It worked really well. I had a ton of support from people Met some really great people along the way.
So they upgraded me on the train on the way here and I got pampered on the train. And I thought I would get pampered on the way home. No such luck. New train on the way home = no upgrade = no dinner.
But I am home and safe and loved the conference and despite all the problems the conference was fabulous. I highly recommend it to anyone. If you have a chance - GO.
...OUTLAW